IDRC - Celebrating 25 Years

1993 - 2018

Supports for complying with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)

How do I make my web site accessible? How do I make my office documents accessible? How do I make information available in alternative formats? Businesses and organizations read our AODA Help.

The work of the team @idrc_ocadu is featured in this article about Morphic #a11y https://t.co/Ay7cBcLf2Y
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FluidProject RT @colinbdclark: Join us at the PPIG 2020 workshop hosted by @idrc_ocadu in Toronto to explore the margins of programming. Who has agency…
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We added a new resource--open and free and ready to be used! https://t.co/2ZLRFMI3ux
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Latest News

Coding to Learn and Create releases first version of Inclusive Coding Environment

The Coding to Learn and Create project has just released the first version of the Inclusive Coding Environment. This version features the ability to create programs that control the movements of Wonder Workshop’s Dash robot. The project will build upon the Coding Environment, adding new features with regular releases in the upcoming months. There are activities in the Educator’s Toolkit for you to try. Free play, Robot on a mission, and Tracing shapes are fun ways to try out the Inclusive Coding Environment!

IDRC at the Platform Cooperative Conference, New York

In early November, IDRC director Jutta Treviranus, designer Cheryl Li and developer Ned Zimmerman participated in Who Owns the World?, the fifth annual Platform Cooperative conference at the New School in New York. The IDRC attended as part of our work on the Platform Cooperative Development Kit, a project in collaboration with Professor Trebor Scholz and the New School which seeks to co-design and develop inclusive tools in support of the emerging platform cooperative movement.

As well as providing an update on the kit at the conference's plenary session, Li and Zimmerman facilitated a co-design session with conference participants aimed at identifying technological needs for platform co-ops and participated in a panel discussion on cooperatives and the technology industry.

Featured Projects

Center on Inclusive Software for Learning (CISL)

This project brings inclusive open education tools and knowledge from the FLOE Project to the newly-announced Center on Inclusive Software for Learning (CISL). Led by CAST, CISL will support the development of an open-source software suite, industry guidelines and supporting research to ensure K-12 students get engaging personalized learning through Open Education Resources. Funded by the the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs.

Platform Co-op

In collaboration with the Platform Co-op movement (https://platform.coop/), the goal of the project is to realize the full aspirations of Platform for Economic Inclusion. Together with Trebor Scholtz, the Platform Co-op Consortium and the New School, the IDRC will be developing a Platform Co-op Development Kit with the support of several foundations. The first implementation will be focused on care: childcare, attendant care and eldercare. “The work that makes all other work possible."

Coding to Learn and Create

The IDRC and Bridges Canada will collaborate on the Coding to Learn and Create project, that will develop new inclusive educational coding tools that will support the participation of students with complex learning needs, and will share critically-needed teaching resources and strategies to help educators teach more inclusively.

Visit the Coding to Learn and Create website (https://www.codelearncreate.org/) to learn more and get involved.

FLOE

FLOE provides the resources needed to enable inclusive access to personally relevant, engaging learning opportunities for the full diversity of learners and content producers. Through the Open Education Resources community, FLOE makes tools available that transform, augment, and personalize the learning experience.

Automated Personalization Computer Project (APCP) and Morphic

APCP (funded by Technology Innovation Program of the Rehabilitation Services Administration, U.S. Deptartment of Education) - In collaboration with the American Job Centers, community colleges, and high schools, the APCP project will help take the auto-personalization function of the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) from the proof-of-concept stage through to a high-quality, broadly-used open source implementation. Led by the TRACE Center at the University of Maryland, the IDRC is contributing to the project’s overall software architecture, security and web personalization infrastructure, and individualized metrics-gathering tools.

Morphic makes it easy to discover and adjust settings and features that can make the computer easier to use. By saving your settings in a secure and private cloud vault, Morphic can instantly apply them when you log in to any Morphic-enabled computer. For more information see the Morphic website (https://morphic.world/).

Cloud4all

Cloud4all is an European Commission FP7 grant that will develop key parts of the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII), building the knowledge base and algorithms needed and evaluating the ability of the concept to work across platforms, technologies and applications.

Inclusive Cities

Inclusive Cities - the IDRC is working with the Sidewalk Toronto team to help create accessibility and inclusion principles. Sidewalk Toronto is a joint effort between Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs and Waterfront Toronto to use smart technology and new construction techniques to develop a piece of land on Toronto’s eastern waterfront.